Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Rachel Williamson
-
The beginning of a new phase of the Syrian tragedy
Security Council Resolution 2254 has repeatedly resurfaced in political deliberations regarding Syria, whether in the statements issued by the Arab meetings in Jeddah and Amman in the context of normalisation with the Assad regime, or the American and European statements regarding the rejection of this normalisation before reaching a...
-
The Myth of the Temple of Solomon II: Ostentation in Brazil
The construction of the headquarters of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the UCKG, in Sao Paulo invokes the biblical description of the Temple of King Solomon. In the first video we showed how this work seeks to bring Brazil closer to an Israeli narrative used in...
-
The UAE’s unclear role in Syria’s return to the fold of the Arab League
I begin this article with prayers for the souls of the righteous martyrs of the Gaza Strip, and curses for the fascist occupation forces that attack our people in occupied Palestine. As the enemy’s bombs and missiles hit home in Gaza, the Arab countries remain silent, despite the killing...
-
All wars are bad for children
Russia took the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council on 1 April. The role is held by each of the member states in turn for one month, in English alphabetical order. This means that the Security Council is being led by a country whose president is subject to...
-
The ICC’s selective approach to war crimes undermines its credibility
Given the slow and selective investigations of alleged war crimes in Palestine and Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court’s speedy warrant to put Russian President Vladimir Putin on trial for alleged crimes in Ukraine begs questions about it becoming a partisan institution. Based in The Hague, the ICC is an...
-
When will the UN ask the USA and UK to pay reparations for their illegal invasion of Iraq?
Iraq paid a total of $52.4 billion in war reparations that it owed for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq was compelled to make this payment when the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 687 in April 1991 finding that “Iraq is liable under international law for any...
-
A week in the life of Baghdad after the 2003 US invasion
WATCH: Bush issues ultimate to Saddam ahead of Iraq invasion...
-
The US-trained Afghan Commandos Fighting for Putin
Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started, reports emerged of Afghan special forces – who were fleeing the Taliban – fighting as guns for hire on the Ukrainian side in the battle for Mariupol. But now it has emerged that the same special force commandos are fighting on the...
-
Continuum of displacement
The tragic earthquake that hit Turkiye and Syria on 6 February did not spare anyone; it shook and levelled homes, many of which had been built by refugees who had fled war and the atrocities of conflict. Once again, in the midst of the discovery of corpses and crying...
-
The Caesar Act and the humanitarian response to the earthquakes
Five days after the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes, the US Treasury announced that humanitarian relief efforts and aid will be allowed to reach Syria. The treasury said that it was a limited exception to the 2019 Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act — which covers sanctions on Syria — and noted that...
-
Algeria, Morocco and the French trap
It is easy to say that France has fallen into the trap of the chronic conflict between Algeria and Morocco by virtue of its historic and current relations with the two countries. However, it is wrong to say that France has succeeded in trapping Algeria and Morocco by keeping...
-
Israeli settler violence comes to Europe through virtual reality
A peaceful vista of the rugged South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank is rudely interrupted by a man, an Israeli settler, wielding an automatic rifle in the distance. Next, the Israeli police come and throw tear gas at a group of Palestinians, all the while shouting at...
-
Will Biden double down on the reckless strategy of appeasing MBS?
President Joe Biden administration’s response to a question by judge John Bates on whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – known as MBS – should be treated as a head of state or government, and thereby entitled to sovereign immunity was hardly surprising. It announced on 17 November that based on...
-
World Social Forum broadens space for Palestine voices in the international arena
On 29 November, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a Jerusalem resident and another from Hebron were on their way to Tunis to share their first-hand accounts about facing colonial Occupation. Their arrival is an exception to the general rule, a life-threatening adventure in Palestine, where...
-
Egypt’s online invoicing will marginalise pro bono medical treatment
Professionals in Egypt are angry. Lawyers have demonstrated in front of their union headquarters, and the doctors’ union has met to reject the law introduced by the regime for all invoices to be issued online. The change affects companies, institutions and organisations, as well as individuals. This is being...
-
Brazil with Lula 2022: Democracy defeats the menace of fascism
The threat of a Brazilian dictatorship legitimised by the ballot – with hordes of armed, ferocious zealots imposing their reactionary values, policies and codes of behaviour – persuaded democratic spirits to rise from years of internal disputes, common in times of political normality. Brazil closed the ranks on Jair...
-
‘Bloody Friday’ highlights the plight of the Baloch in Iran
A month after a brutal massacre, protests continue in Iran’s restive region of Balochistan, home to the Baloch-Sunni ethno-religious minority. Six more people, including three children, were reported to have been killed on Friday as Iranian security forces opened fire on the demonstrators in Zahedan, the capital of the...
-
It is a disgrace that the marginalisation of Nubian Egyptians is ongoing
Ten Egyptian citizens living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were sentenced to between 10 and 18 years in prison last week. Their “crime” was to commemorate the 1973 October War, and they were sentenced by the notorious Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh. The court is fast becoming an...
-
International eyes on the Brazilian elections, a race for the Deep Country
The alliance of pro-democracy actors around Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s run for the presidency won over almost half of the Brazilian constituency, gathering 48.4 per cent of votes for the former Chief-of-State, who barely closed the race on 2nd October. However, the slight 1.6 per cent who set...
-
It’s time to bury Arab summits for good
I believe that there is no further point in either hosting or even holding the Arab League’s summits. After being an “honour” for the host country and a source of diplomatic, political and even tourist marketing, the Arab summits have in recent years become a heavy and embarrassing burden...
-
‘Complicit in Apartheid’: Google workers speak out against Israel contract
Ariel Koren, who has left Google since she spoke to MEMO having handed in her resignation at the end of August, was a marketing manager that worked for Alphabet (Google’s parent company) for seven years. For over a year, Ariel had been mobilising workers to speak out against Project...
-
Should we be worried by the possibility of a Shia civil war in Iraq?
There is usually a lot of competition between near-equal armed groups in Iraq. Resisting the 2003 US-led invasion provided a good opportunity for emerging groups from Sunni and Shia communities across the country to do just that. Such groups became the main protagonists in the bloody civil war, which...
-
The Arab world has failed Palestine, leaving it in limbo
Against the backdrop of a global climate catastrophe and a war raging in Ukraine, Israel has continued its systemic encroachment of Palestinian land. It is shocking that recent developments have not received wider coverage. Like the grave humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan, the issue has lost the world’s...
-
IMF and World Bank must help countries on the brink
The IMF and the World Bank nudged the relatively closed countries towards greater capital account liberalisation over the last few decades, sometimes pushing them using stern conditionality. Now, when higher interest rates in advanced economies are sucking capital out of developing economies, these influential International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have...